The team to play Bordeaux on Saturday has been announced.
The Ospreys team to play Bordeaux at Stade Chaban-Delmas, on Saturday 19th December 2015, KO 6.15pm (Local), is as follows:
15 Dan Evans
14 Jeff Hassler
13 Ben John
12 Josh Matavesi
11 Eli Walker
10 Dan Biggar
9 Tom Habberfield
1 Paul James
2 Scott Baldwin
3 Dmitri Arhip
4 Lloyd Ashley
5 Alun Wyn Jones (Capt)
6 Dan Lydiate
7 Justin Tipuric
8 James King
REPLACEMENTS
16 Sam Parry
17 Ryan Bevington
18 Aaron Jarvis
19 Rory Thornton
20 Dan Baker
21 Martin Roberts
22 Sam Davies
23 Hanno Dirksen
Brendon Leonard was unavailable as his wife is due to give birth
The following players were unavailable for selection due to injury:
Tyler Ardron – Knee
Joe Bearman - Neck
Ashley Beck – ACL
Dafydd Howells - Hamstring
Nicky Smith – Ankle
Jonathan Spratt - Knee
Rhys Webb – Foot
Ospreys Head Coach, Steve Tandy, said:
“We’ve put ourselves in a strong position in the pool at this stage with our performances so far but nobody in this environment will be getting carried away with ourselves. We realise that we are only at the halfway stage at this point and, starting on Saturday, we have to go all over again.
“We said at the start of the campaign that we had to win our home games and see what we can pick up on the road and that’s what it’s been about so far. We’ve now got two away games and just the one home, so this is where it starts to get particularly tough.
“There’ll be a typically passionate French crowd there on Saturday, we are going into an environment where they have the biggest average crowd in European rugby, so we know it’ll be a test of character as much as ability, as it always is on the road in top competitions like this. We’ve got to thrive on that and stand up to the challenge.
“We realise that they’ll rotate their squad again but we know whoever they select it’ll be a team packed with quality. That’s the depth that a €20m operating budget gives you. We can’t worry about things like that though, it’s about our preparation, controlling the controlables and focussing on our own game, smoothing out the rough edges from last weekend and making sure that we are the best we can be.
“It’s important that we approach this game in the right way as the right performance will allow us to keep building momentum which is crucial with a huge month of rugby ahead of us in the PRO12 and Europe.”
Forthcoming Fixtures
Sat 26 Dec – 2.05pm KO – Scarlets v Ospreys – PRO12
Fri 1 Jan – 2.00pm KO – Ospreys v Dragons – PRO12
Fri 8 Jan – 7.45pm KO – Ospreys v Leinster - PRO12